Wow, I am so happy to see this thread here!
I never "liked" the fact that I was circumcised, but I believed all the other bullshit most Americans do about it. When I first found out I was circumcised, my mother told me it was healthier, looked better, and that it was a commandment from God (this was when I was a little kid, back then I was a very religious Christian). While I didn't like the fact that I was circumcised, I figured I really didn't want to go to hell, and so I was ok with it, blinded by lies. I can now say that I am ashamed that I ever thought this was an acceptable procedure to perform on a baby boy!
A little over four years ago, a situation came up that prompted me to re-think circumcision. When I have a son in the future, would I have him circumcised? I always felt kinda violated that part of my body, part of my penis no less, was cut off without my consent, but once again perhaps there are benefits? So I figured I owed it to my future son(s) to do a little research on the topic, and I'm very glad I did. As the video in OP's post explains, the "health benefits" of circumcision are at best over-exaggerated, and that's not how medicine is supposed to be practiced anyway. We don't cut perfectly healthy body tissue off just to avoid a future risk of infection. Obviously we do sometimes cut out certain things, tonsils, appendixes, etc. but only after they've been shown to be problematic. There's nothing inherently wrong about having a foreskin! As far as the religious argument goes, in the New Testament it's said that Christians should not be circumcised. As Eric Clopper states in his video, circumcision was a blood sacrifice for the Jews. Christians believe that Jesus died to save us from our sins, for Christians continuing to circumcise our newborn would be rejecting Christ's salvation. It's a common misconception among American Christians that we're supposed to be circumcised.
But more importantly, fuck the religious argument altogether. Here in America anyway, we're supposed to have "Freedom of Religion." By permanently cutting off part of my dick "in the name of god", my parents robbed me of my own freedom of religion. As far as I'm concerned, Human Rights should always triumph over religious ones. If you want to get yourself circumcised feel free, but no child should have their body permanently altered against their will. Religions that require circumcision or any other body modifications, especially for children, are barbaric.
And then I learned all of the benefits that a foreskin provides, and I became FURIOUS that I was robbed of it! Now, initially, I didn't really blame my parents. I was born in the late 80s, well before most people had internet in their homes. For that matter, a lot of people in my town didn't even own a computer back then. Now most people have some sort of smartphone, and most questions can be answered with a simple Google search. I couldn't blame my parents when they didn't have access to that sort of technology back then, and instead I blamed the doctors for failing to truthfully tell all the pros and cons of circumcision. So I never confronted them about it.
But I did want to help bring this atrocity to an end, so I became an intactivist. I tried to spread the word about the harms of circumcision. I shared intactivist memes on Facebook, I started "carding", leaving cards around that described the harms and had links with more information. I even got to protest with Brother K and the Bloodstained Men in Washington DC once. I'm not as active now as I once was though.
I'm not friends with my mom on Facebook, but I am friends with a bunch of people from my church, and word travels fast in a small town. When my Mom found out about everything I was posting, she was LIVID. She called me on the phone, cursed me out, told me that was her and my father's decision and that she would still make the same decision today. We went for a couple years with every phone call ending in cursing, yelling, and arguments. Now I've disowned my parents, we don't talk anymore. This pretty much caused a ripple effect, and I no longer have any real contact in my side of the family.
TL;DR: Intactivist here that agrees with everything in the video OP posted. Disowned parents after numerous large arguments regarding circumcision.
I'm happy to see this thread here because even though GBATemp has absolutely nothing to do with circumcision, it shows that the word is spreading. And I can see from various other posts that I am far from the only person at GBATemp that believes circumcision is a human rights violation.
Feel free to message me with any questions, either via PM or here in this thread.
